Burt Notarius (center), owner of the new,
52,000-square-foot Premier Wine and Spirits,
in Amherst, NY, is flanked by his sons Jon (left)
and Mark, who are co-owners of the adjacent,
newly built Premier Gourmet.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOE CASCIO
Burt Notarius has created a new, larger, ultra-modern
version of his long successful Premier Wine and Spirits,
while his sons Mark and Jon have established a new
Premier Gourmet store right next door, as their businesses
reach for new heights in Western New York.
By Jack Robertiello
Even when you're the biggest guy around, change is never easy, and growing pains are inevitable.
Just ask Burt Notarius, whose wine and spirits store has dominated Western New York State for some
40 years. His latest effort - moving his well-known Premier Wine and Spirits to a new and larger location
in Amherst, NY - faced a handful of potential stumbling blocks: settling environmentally sensitive problems
at the new location, leaving a business corridor where the store had operated since 1969, preparing to
appeal to expanding customer demographics, not to mention designing a larger store from the ground up.
At the same time, his two sons, Mark and Jon, nearly simultaneously opened another venture, Premier
Gourmet, right next door. And then there was the issue of a two-month long roadwork project that choked
traffic to the store just as they opened and reduced anticipated volume by about 20%.
While those early challenges might have caused a bit of concern, the Notarius family is now picking up
speed – at Premier Wine and Spirits, customer count has increased, transaction volume per sale is up more
than 5%, and they've added about 30,000 new customers to their discount card ranks.
Premier has moved locations before, but this time the change has been massive – retail space jumped by half
to about 30,000 square feet, with a total building footprint exceeding 52,500 square feet. Storage space soared
Beverage Dynamics • www.beveragedynamics.com • January/February 2013 • 17
